The present invention concerns a method of preparing and attaching a communication line such as an optical fiber or cable to a supporting surface on or inside of a building, for example, a wall or a ceiling.
When a communication line such as an optical fiber or cable is installed along hallway walls and inside rooms of a building to connect with individual subscriber modems and/or other components that have a fiber optical interface, the line is typically stapled onto the walls, along baseboards, and around door frames and corners so that the visual impact of the installed line is acceptable and the cost of the installation is reasonable. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,817,892 (Oct. 19, 2010). It is also known to pre-coat a length of an optical fiber with an adhesive material that is not tacky at room temperature, wind the fiber on a bobbin, and then heat the wound fiber until the adhesive becomes tacky so that the fiber windings adhere to one another and maintain a precision package from which the fiber can unwind without breakage. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,049 (Aug. 21, 1990). See also U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,525 (Mar. 27, 1990) which discloses an optical communication cable in the form of a flexible strip or tape, wherein one or more parallel optical fibers are fixed along a side of the strip on which an adhesive is deposited.